Edgar Wright attends "The Running Man" UK Premiere at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on November 05, 2025 in London, England. Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text Twitter was once a place where notable filmmakers offered a piece of themselves in between regimented press tours. Sometimes, they'd answer fan questions, or they'd go back and forth with each other in an effort to provide advice to aspiring filmmakers. And in some instances, one of their tweets would actually lead to collaboration, something Edgar Wright knows firsthand. In 2017, Wright responded to a random tweet to say that The Running Man is the remake he'd most want to undertake. At 14, he'd read Stephen King's (as Richard Bachman) 2025-set dystopian novel of the same, but he wasn't old enough to see the Arnold Schwarzenegger-led adaptation in U.K. cinemas the year prior. Once he finally caught up to Paul Michael Glaser's 1987 film a couple years later, he realized that King's book was still largely untapped, thereby hatching his longtime desire to reapproach the source material. Producer Simon Kinberg, remembering Wright's tweet, then offered him that very opportunity a few years ago. Related Stories Movies Glen Powell Says Tom Cruise Taught Him "How Not to Die" on 'The Running Man' Movies Josh Brolin Talks the Kiss That Led to 'The Running Man' and the Interminable Wait for 'Sicario 3' Reteaming with his Scott Pilgrim vs. the World co-writer, Michael Bacall, the co-writers took their cues from King's work and positioned their story on Ben Richards, but not the "Butcher of Bakersfield" à la Schwarzenegger's take. Instead, Ben is a working-class guy whose temperament has cost him the ability to support his struggling family in the film's corporation-controlled future. So he's forced to audition for reality television that's produced by the authoritarian "Network," and despite his original intent, he's talked into participating as a "Runner" in their deadliest game show known as The Running Man. If Ben survives the headhunting pursuits of the show's "Hunters" for 30 days, he can pocket up to $1 billion. Whenever filmmakers adapt King's work, they usually admit to being terrified of his response. It's hard enough that he's arguably the most celebrated author to ever pen genre fiction, but his famous disapproval of Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of his 1977 novel, The Shining, inevitably comes to mind. However, being the social butterfly that he is, Wright already had a well-established email relationship with King. "21 years ago, Stephen King gave us a press quote for Shaun of the Dead, and it was mind-blowing to me at the time that we got a rave from Stephen King on our poster," Wright tells The Hollywood Reporter. "I've then had this email correspondence with him over the years where he'd always be generous about my movies. But we would mostly email about music. I'd sometimes send him vinyl on his birthday - bands like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Sunflower Bean." The conversation eventually turned to Wright's development of The Running Man, mainly because King had contractual approval over his choice of leading man and any major story changes, such as the ending. Wright and his Ben Richards casting of Glen Powell soon cleared both of those hurdles with flying colors, but there was still overwhelming pressure to now fulfill those expectations on set and in the edit. Fortunately, Wright's pleasant experience with King only continued. "The email I got after he watched the movie had the subject heading in all caps. It just said, 'WOW,'" Wright recalls. "He said lots of nice things about the movie, but then he said, 'It's faithful enough to the novel that fans will be happy, but different enough that it kept me excited.' And I thought, 'Well, I can't ask for anything more than that.'" The mission of the film may have been about honoring the original novel, but Wright still made a point to recognize the cult fans of the 1987 film. It may not be mentioned in the same breath as Schwarzenegger's more signature films such as Terminator 2, True Lies and Total Recall, but respect is still paid. And as revealed in the marketing, Schwarzenegger even makes a photographic cameo as the presidential face of this near future's $100 bill. The Easter egg actually has double meaning. It not only acknowledges the actor behind the original Ben Richards, but it's also a cheeky reference to another sci-fi actioner. "It's a shared joke with the Demolition Man universe," Wright shares. "In Demolition Man, they mention President Schwarzenegger, so it's my little shout out to both Arnie and [Demolition Man co-screenwriter] Daniel Waters." Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Wright also discusses how his and Powell's friendship w